In addition to the investigation into Hunter Biden, federal authorities are conducting a criminal investigation into a hospital business involving Joe Biden’s brother James in the western district of Pennsylvania. According to a second person with direct knowledge of the investigation, federal officials have asked questions about James Biden’s role in the business. There is no indication that Joe Biden himself is under investigation, but if the cases remain open when Joe Biden takes office, they could complicate his presidency and shed a vague light on the actions of his relatives, often seeking to exploit the Biden family’s capital. “I take this matter very seriously, but I hope that a professional and objective review of these matters will prove that I have handled my affairs legally and properly, including for the benefit of professional tax advisers,” Hunter Biden said in a statement. Neither Biden’s change nor Hunter and James Fiden’s attorney, George Messierso, responded immediately to requests for comment. The Biden-Harris change, which previously denied any awareness of federal research in Hunter’s business operations, struck a defensive note in a statement that came with Hunter. “Biden, who was elected president, is very proud of his son, who has faced tough challenges, including the brutal personal attacks of recent months, only to emerge stronger,” the change committee said in a statement. Earlier this month, Biden promised his relatives he would avoid conflicts of interest. “My son, my family is not involved in any business. No company seems to contradict or contradict, with an inappropriate distance from the president and the government,” he said. But having business-related studies involving the son of the president-elect and his brother presents a new challenge for the incoming administration. Kathleen Clark, a law professor at the University of Washington in St. Louis and an expert on government ethics, has long said that under Watergate rules, contacts between the judiciary and the White House over criminal investigations should be strictly limited. Clark said Attorney General William Barr had destroyed those rules and that any investigation into Biden’s relatives should prompt the re-confirmation of the next head of the judiciary. “It is important to underline the independence of the judiciary to certain internal messages of the judiciary,” Clark said. “What Biden and the Biden DOJ have to do is to insist that Biden will not interfere in specific DOJ investigations.” The acquaintance says that Hunter Biden’s investigation has primarily dealt with his financial relationships with foreign individuals and businesses. As a standard practice for tax investigations, the Taxation Division for Chief Justice in Washington is also involved in the investigation, the person said. In recent years, Hunter Biden has served on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Brisma, the founder of which has faced allegations of corruption, and has done legal work for Roman businessman Gabriel Bobovici, who has been accused of corruption. Hunter Biden also struck deals with Chinese oil chief Yeh Jianming and Yassin’s ally Patrick Ho. In 2018, Ho was convicted of violating the Foreign Corruption Practices Act in the Southern District of New York for attempting to bribe government officials in Chad and Uganda. POLITICO Newsletters Monitoring the appointments, people and power centers of the next administration. Devon Archer, another business partner of Hunter Biden, was convicted in 2018 of unrelated fraud in the southern district of New York. As part of the lawsuit, bank records showing foreign payments to Hunter Biden were leaked. After a judge overturned Archer’s sentence in late 2018 (the appellate court upheld the sentence last month), attorneys in the STNI Debt Fraud Division began reviewing Archer’s case last year to investigate those foreign payments to Hunter Biden, citing money laundering symptoms. According to the person with the first knowledge of the search, investigation. But the man said that after discussions with prosecutors in Delaware, its investigation was already well underway and after it was acknowledged by Hunter Biden on Wednesday, prosecutors in the SDNI securities division stopped their investigation without initiating a separate, formal investigation. STNY and Delaware U.S. Judicial spokeswoman Kerry Kubek declined to comment, according to prosecutor’s office spokesmen. Hunter Biden also faced recent tax issues. In July, the District of Columbia did not pay $ 453,000 in taxes against him, which he quickly satisfied, according to DC tax records accessed by database service Nexis. This right was first declared by the Washington Free Beacon. Meanwhile, FBI agents, as part of an investigation based in the western district of Pennsylvania into James Biden’s dealings with American Health, a hospital company that operates rural hospitals, according to a direct acquaintance of that investigation. In late January, FBI agents raided an American hospital in Elwood City, B.C., and removed the boxes. This test, previously announced, followed a hospital malfunction. The bankrupt American faces allegations of mismanagement unrelated to James Biden, and it is unclear whether his actions are at the center of the investigation. The exact nature of James Biden’s involvement with the U.S. is also controversial. Politico previously announced that it will have a brief office in 2018 at the company’s Florida headquarters. The business card identifying him as the “president” of the United States was filed in court records in a civil case in Tennessee, but the company has disputed that he is a president. James Biden’s former business contacts said he called the name and influence of his powerful older brother during his involvement with the United States, although he has disputed their accounts. A Biden campaign official had previously told Politico that Joe Biden had never discussed the American with his brother or expressed support for the business. The founder of the United States, Grand White, attended the September 2017 fundraiser of the Beau Biden Foundation attended by Joe Biden. A former U.S. executive said the two met at the event. The Biden campaign previously told Politico that any contact between Joe Biden and White would have been passive. A person familiar with the situation says the Department of Health and the Office of the Inspector General of Human Services are also involved in the American Health investigation. Spokesmen for the HHS IG office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania declined to comment. Previous presidents have taken different approaches in dealing with federal inquiries regarding their family members. Richard Nixon has been criticized for instructing his attorney general, John Mitchell, to wiretap his brother Donald to keep tabs on Donald’s suspicious business dealings. Jimmy Carter, on the other hand, agreed to investigate under oath as part of an investigation into his brother Billy’s relationship with the Libyan government.
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